


all I want to do is grow old with you

by kitnkabootle



Category: Mum (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, First Time
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-17
Updated: 2019-05-17
Packaged: 2020-03-07 00:28:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18862039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitnkabootle/pseuds/kitnkabootle
Summary: A collection of one shot stories, one for every episode of series 3 so spoilers will exist but only for one episode at a time.





	all I want to do is grow old with you

**Monday**

 

The cinema lights flicker in the gentle way they do, illuminating and darkening the theatre in abstract as Cathy and Michael take their seats.

They’ve arrived late for the show on account of Jason and Kelly stopping by Cathy’s, unplanned. Though she tried to be patient with the pair, she’d checked her wristwatch obsessively, willing them to leave. Neither seemed to take the hint. Finally after she’d closed the door behind them and waited until they’d gone far enough, she jumped in her car and took the roadway at a clip. Michael had been patiently waiting for her outside of the theatre when she arrived, tickets in hand. He told her he’d been worried about her having second thoughts but she’d looked into his eyes and told him she didn’t and it had melted all the concern from his face.

Halfway through the film, their hands meet over the carton of popcorn and they laugh at how silly it is, how cliche. Michael feels like a teenager again. It’s the most natural thing in the world to be beside Cathy, here in the cinema, and yet there is so much at stake. He barely pays attention to the film, but watches it until the darker scenes when he can steal a glance in her direction. She’s beautiful, her eyes are lit up by the protection, her face relaxed. She catches him looking at her and to both of their surprise, neither looks away. Michael feels her hand slip into his, her fingers trailing gently across his palm. He wants to kiss her, right there in the middle of the darkened theatre but they aren’t seventeen anymore and he’s worried he’ll rush her or put pressure on her. So instead, he closes his fingers around hers and gives a gentle squeeze. He sees her smile and look back to the screen so he does the same. All he can think about for the rest of the film is how small and delicate her hand is.

When the film is over, they linger in the lobby as the employees sweep the carpet, and begin to close up. Neither seems to want to part and with no ulterior motive, just a desire to share in each other’s company longer, Michael asks Cathy back to his. She looks surprised and Michael hastens to add, “No, no, not in that way. I just meant if you’d like a coffee, or… just a chat…”

Cathy accepts the invitation, her smile lighting her eyes.

When they arrive at Michael’s it becomes awkward. The distraction of the film, people, the noise — all of it’s gone. There’s no one popping in to spirit Cathy away. No one to interrupt a conversation that’s getting too deep, or too real.

So he puts on the radio, offers Cathy a drink and she seems to accept more out of politeness than anything else. They try conversation but it’s stilted and the ease of their usual interactions are stolen by the sound of Ella Fitzgerald crackling on the radio.

They stand together in his kitchen and the conversation returns when Michael points to the calendar hanging on the wall, “See, that’s where I put it.”

“Oh,” she laughs, turning to look at their faces on the current month, “Well I’m glad you’re getting some use out of it.”

“Yep, Yep… love the reminders of the daft antics we get up to,” Michael teases her and she laughs softly, leaning in towards him to nudge him with her shoulder.

When their arms meet, Cathy looks up at him and in an instant her lips are pressed to his. He hardly has time to react, his heart is hammering in his chest. He has imagined this moment many times over the years between them and especially since they’ve been regularly going out together. He tentatively cups his palm at her tiny waist, his fingers softly stroking the material of her top. He doesn’t want it to end, he could kiss Cathy Walker for the rest of his life, just this way, and be perfectly content.

When their lips part and Cathy is somewhat breathless looking into his eyes, he can’t help but touch her cheek, marvel at how beautiful she is and how the years have only strengthened what he feels for her.

“That was… nice…” he says stupidly because he can’t think of anything else to say and he feels the need to say something.

The smile that spreads wide at her lips is punctuated by a laugh and she leans forward into his arms and presses her forehead against his chest. He encircles her in a hug, runs his hand in a soft caress along her lower back.

“I thought it would be weird,” she says, half-against his shirt, “... you know, kissing another ma— kissing someone after Dave…”

Michael immediately feels his stomach tighten nervously, worried that she regrets it.

“Oh, I —“

“It doesn’t,” she says quickly and looks up into his eyes.

The relief is palpable and the slight puff of air that expels from his lips unbidden is a tell. Cathy smiles and her gaze drifts to his lips.

“Did you… eh, did you want to do it again sometime?” Michael knows he’s blushing as he says it, but he doesn’t care because he has Cathy wrapped in his arms and she’s looking at him the way she’d only ever done in his deepest, most securely hidden fantasies.

“Oh yes,” she answers, her eyes returning to his, “Would now be too soon?”

He chuckles but the look of sincerity in her eyes charges the moment. His hand carefully touches the space where her neck joins her shoulder and he leans towards her, their lips meeting in the middle. This time the kiss is amplified with nervous energy, electrified like a current that courses through his veins. He can taste her now, can feel her hands at his shoulders holding him close. Their breaths are short, stolen when his mouth leaves hers to kiss her jaw and when she exhales in a quiet moan against his throat.

“Michael,” she asks, voice thick and low and breathless, “Can we go to your room?”

Michael knows that this will change things between them. It already has really. But this last thing seems like a threshold, a crossing over to another level that neither of them will be able to walk back. He knows he doesn’t want to walk it back, not ever, and despite the fragility of his heart, knows that Cathy wouldn’t want to either.

“Are you sure?”

Her lips are glistening from their kiss, her eyes imploring and he knows he looks much the same.

“Yes,” she answers without hesitation, then ‘yes’ again against his lips as she reaches up and puts her arms around his shoulders.

He resists the urge to pick her up and instead backs up towards the bedroom, clumsily maneuvering them as they remain locked in an embrace.

Later as they lay draped across one another, glistening with sweat and completely and utterly sated, Michael notices Cathy’s eyes welling with unshed tears.

“Oh Cathy — are y—“

“It’s alright,” she says through the tears, which have broken loose from her lower lashes and wander down her cheeks. She dabs at them with her fingers. “No it was really wonderful Michael it’s just—“

“You miss Dave?” Cathy’s eyes widen and she looks so quickly into his face that he knows he’s right.

“Oh God… is that? I mean is that weird? I … obviously I wasn’t thinking about… I mean not when we were—“

“It’s alright Cathy,” he says with a smile, brushing his hand across her forehead tenderly, “I know what you meant. Is it weird to say, I miss him too?”

Cathy laughs at that and immediately looks at ease because of it.

Michael knows that a relationship with Cathy will never be just the two of them. Dave lingers in everything they’ve ever done and everything they ever will do. He’s a constant. But neither seem bothered by that fact, and Michael thinks in some strange way it’s better because of it. Dave doesn’t have to be forgotten for them to have a happy life together. Instead Michael feels that Dave exists all around them, helping them navigate the hurdles that fall in their path.

He holds Cathy closer, tighter, to reassure her that he doesn’t mind. She relaxes into him, places a kiss to his chest before pressing her cheek to it and it is in that way they fall asleep.


End file.
